Dizzying Delights

Top restaurants teamed up last Friday to provide great food for a great cause

If 1,100 people, cartloads of gourmet food, gallons of fine wine and
beer — and, don’t forget, a bar carved out of ice — can make a party,
then Friday night’s Epicurean Delight was a party indeed. The annual
event brings restaurants and caterers together to compete for best hors
d’oeuvres, first course, entrée and dessert. Out of the inherent
near-chaos of preparing food for more than a thousand diners in an
unfamiliar setting, chefs managed to present artful arrangements of
gourmet preparations. It fell to the judges to sort out the winners.

For
the hors d’oeuvres course, the Glover Mansion’s bruschetta bar
featuring toasted baguettes with smoked salmon mousse, humus, romesco,
tapenade and the traditional garlic tomatoes with fresh mozzarella and
basil rose to the top. Beverly’s didn’t win, but drew big crowds with
its unlikely, but delicious, lobster corndogs — lobster mousseline
encased in a crispy cornbread coating and served on a stick with a
variety of tasty sauces.

Madeleine’s
delicate Cajun smoked salmon Napoleon with crème fraiche and a side of
field greens in lemon vinaigrette was the winner for first course. Also
notable was the Southwestern pork panini sandwich — pork tenderloin
medallions pan-seared with Kansas City bacon and served with roasted
corn salsa on foccacia bread — from Woodlands at Northern Quest.

Zola
captured the entrée judges’ fancy with a sassy potato-crusted salmon
with wasabi crème fraiche and a sesame crusted risotto cake. Spencer’s
Painted Hill’s beef steak marinated in a piquant chimichurri sauce was
also a big crowd-pleaser. Ambrosia’s pulled pork tostada with jicama
jalapeno slaw and avocado crème fraiche was a hearty take on
south-of-the-border food that would have made Rick Bayless proud.

The
dessert winner was a tried-and-true favorite, Clinkerdagger’s silky
burnt cream. In fact, more than 700 individual portions were snapped up
by diners. Many of those diners also sidled up to the Melting Pot’s
chocolate fountain to slip a strawberry, brownie or rice krispy treat
into the perpetually flowing chocolate. Another popular stop for those
with a sweet-tooth was Just American Desserts’ bite-sized tart filled
with maple-infused custard and topped with crunchy pecans — rich yet
delicate.

The
People’s Choice Award went to Max at Mirabeau for their presentation of
meltingly tender seared beef tenderloin with white truffle polenta. The
crispy shiitake mushrooms added a nice flourish to an already
well-rounded dish.

As
always, the event offered unparalleled peoplewatching, with evening
gowns swirling on the dance floor and tuxes in abundance. The viewing
was only enhanced by generous pours from more than a dozen Northwest
wineries and breweries.

As
the only fund-raiser of the year for the Inland Northwest Blood Center,
Epicurean Delight is about more than a deluxe party. The Center is the
sole provider of blood products to hospitals serving nearly a million
people in Eastern Washington, northern and central Idaho and western
Montana. And the Blood Center responds to national emergencies as well
if local supplies permit. In fact, on the same day as Epicurean
Delight, the Blood Center dispatched 35 units of blood to Orlando
following the tragic office shooting there.

Maintaining
an adequate supply requires more than 150 donors to roll up their
sleeves every day. Part of the money raised at Epicurean Delight will
help pay for staff education and training; some will also go for
technologies such as new high-tech donor chairs that feature Internet
access and TV screens. (Those can help attract volunteers for longer
procedures such as platelet donation.)

Feed
Spokane partnered with the blood center this year to distribute all the
food not consumed at Epicurean Delight as free meals at area shelters.

Good
food, good causes and plenty of fun. But before the ice bar melted,
organizers started turning their attention to next year’s event,
scheduled for Nov. 12.